lexeme means A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.; The abstract minimum unit of language or meaning that underlies such a set. It carries an Arena rating of 1417, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lexeme ranks #4,717 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #5,657 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #8,235 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #9,400 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
lexeme is pronounced /ˈlɛkˌsiːm/.
Why “lexeme” is a great word
The abstract, minimal unit of lexical meaning, representing the set of all inflected forms derived from a single root. From Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, 'word, speech') and the suffix -eme (indicating a fundamental structural unit), modeled on terms like phoneme; first attested in English in 1937. Unlike 'word,' which refers to any concrete, uttered instance (such as 'ran'), or 'morpheme,' which denotes the smallest grammatical piece (like the 'un-' in 'undo'), a lexeme is the singular concept that gathers its scattered expressions under one roof in the dictionary. It is the shadowy 'run' that haunts 'runs,' 'ran,' and 'running'; it is the root 'child' persisting beneath 'childhood' and 'childish'; it is the ghost in the linguistic machine, the persistent identity we cling to as the forms around us change.
Etymology
From Latin lexis, from Ancient Greek λέξις (léxis, “word”) + -eme, a suffix indicating a fundamental unit in some aspect of linguistic structure, on the model of phoneme.
noun
- A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.; The abstract minimum unit of language or meaning that underlies such a set.
- A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.; The set itself; a lexemic family.
- A lexical item corresponding to the set of all words (or of all multi-word expressions) that are semantically related through inflection of a particular shared basic form.; The wordform chosen to represent such a set or family.
- An individual instance of a continuous character sequence without spaces, used in lexical analysis.e.g.“Near-synonym: token”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- lexemic 72% match — Of or relating to a lexeme. vs lexeme →
- lexome 71% match — A set of related lexemes vs lexeme →
- lingueme 68% match — Any unit of linguistic structure, such as a phoneme, a morpheme, or a whole phrase. vs lexeme →
- sememe 67% match — The smallest unit of meaning; especially, the meaning expressed by a morpheme. vs lexeme →
- lexomic 63% match — Related to or composed of lexomes. vs lexeme →
- lexicosemantics 63% match — The study of word meanings and their relationships. vs lexeme →
- pheneme 63% match — A (hypothetical) linguistic item that is atomic both with respect to phonology as well as semantics; an item that is both a phoneme as well as a sememe. vs lexeme →
- syntaxeme 63% match — A basic semantic-syntactical element of a language. vs lexeme →